[Coral-List] mining on Majuro

[Dean Jacobson]

Greetings:
It was wonderful to meet some of you in Cairns.
 
Today, PII, the company that has been permitted to mine a
Majuro lagoon coral reef (over 500 meters along the shore) adjacent to the water reservoirs,
has after a long pause continued construction work on the ramp onto which a huge
dragline crane will be off-loaded from a barge.  The EPA Board approval occurred without any examination of the reef that
is to be destroyed, and without any EIA or public hearing.  (The most recent public hearing considered an
earlier plan that did not involve coral mining)..  This situation is a repetition of the flawed
regulatory process, with pressure exerted by the RMI government, to mine the spectacular
picnic area reef several kilometers to the west.  The lack of transparency and due process was
so egregious (and the reef so impressive) that FAA disallowed this dredge plan,
and required that fill be obtained “off island”.  FAA then reversed itself, and is now allowing
a similar near shore coral reef (dredged from a shore-based crane).  FAA needs to explain this inconsistency,
especially when an alternative source of fill, in the shallow parts of Majuro
lagoon, exists, which would prevent coral reef destruction.  
I urge all concerned listers to send emails to FAA (ron.v.simpson at faa.gov).  Please note that Ron Simpson now claims that
FAA is free from any law designed to avoid damage to sensitive coastal regions,
despite the existence of executive order 12114 (which specifically targets
airport projects funded by FAA outside the US), and that the RMI is free to
destroy its coral reefs with US funds in order to meet the FAA budget restrictions.  This is not right.
To see the reservoir reef, google “Youtube” and “reservoir
reef”.  My channel is atolldino.
By the way, a Majuro senator, David Kramer (also of PII) is again
publically calling for my deportation, and the editor of our local paper is
calling on me to shut up, just because I publically criticized the recently approved EMP submitted by PII which fails to adequately present a coral rescue and replanting mitigation effort, as they had promised to do (even going so far as to depict reef balls as ellipses, side view, in a diagram).  It is well known that mitigation plans here are not made in good faith.
Thanks!
Dean Jacobson
College of the Marshall Islands